Getting Here
I hail from Queens, New York – as did Adrian Brody, Susan Sarandon, Martin Scorcese, Cyndi Lauper, and Bernadette Peters just to name a few-- from my own family of artists. My nana was a big band singer, mom a concert pianist, and dad an Irish crooner.
My stage debut looks like this: My three brothers and I perform scenes from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In to an audience of just two, mom and dad. This was my first glimpse of what the word “play,” meant.
This teenager’s dilemma: whether to study acting, or teaching.
The “acting bug” really bit hard in high school and continued into college where I attained my B.A in English Literature and Theatre, minoring in Secondary Education. Good thing for the latter, because I moved to Los Angeles where acting jobs were few and far between, and bills were piling up.
That’s when I did a complete 180-turn and began a 20-year teaching stint with LAUSD. Courses I taught included English Literature, theatre, and speech and debate. While instructing drama -- to get away from the boxed musicals -- I wrote and directed 10 original stories that explored the joys and wounds of being a teenager. To give you an idea, here’s the title of one, “Dropout, the musical”
So there I was twenty years later, retired and reflecting on my early days of acting: those valuable studies at the Herbert Berghoff Acting Studio in Manhattan under the auspices of Sandy Dennis, sitting in on Uta Hagen’s classes, performing one-act festivals at the Public Theatre, and in other off-Broadway plays. During those early years I garnered credits including 50-some musicals and 25 plays and traveling throughout the country in 2 national tours, regional theatre, and summer stock on the east coast.
That got me thinking. A lot. Which brings me to now.
I’m back on the stage. And I’m happy to report say that during those twenty-some years I never let my actor union dues lapse. It feels right to once again be a full-time actor.